Burak Bekdil

Burak Bekdil
Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist. He regularly writes for the Gatestone Institute and Defense News, and is a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

ARTICLES BY: Burak Bekdil

January 24, 2019 9:05 am

On Missile Deal, Turkey’s True Ally Is Russia, Not America

The Trump administration has offered to sell $3.5 billion worth of Patriot missiles to Turkey, apparently in an effort to stop Ankara from going ahead...

December 13, 2018 8:49 am

Erdogan’s Self Interest Always Comes Before His Values

Is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a devout ideologue or a pragmatist? The answer is both. Perhaps a more relevant question is: When is he...

October 11, 2018 9:58 am

Turkey’s Syrian Quagmire

At first glance, the plan looked viable: using the “Arab Spring” as a legitimate pretext, Turkey would convince Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign; the...

September 4, 2018 11:50 am

The US-Turkey Diplomatic Crisis

The current Turkish-American diplomatic crisis is fundamentally different from other such crises in 1964 or 1975. Turkish public sentiment in the 1960s and 1970s was...

July 31, 2018 5:37 pm

Turkey: New System, Same One-Man Show

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, undoubtedly the most popular and divisive leader in modern Turkish history, has already ruled the country longer than Atatürk, the founder...

July 2, 2018 1:19 pm

What Turkey’s New Islamist-Nationalist Alliance Means for the World

Four decades after they emerged as marginal parties in the 1970s, Turkey’s militant Islamists and ultra-nationalists won a combined 53.6% of the national vote and...

June 18, 2018 9:02 am

Turkey Holds ‘Elections’ Again

On June 24, Turkey will hold its sixth election in four years. The Turks will choose between augmenting what is practically one-man rule based on...

April 30, 2018 9:41 am

Turkey’s Erdogan vs. the Free Press

First the good news: Turkey, which is already the worst jailer of journalists in the world, may no longer need to put newsmen and women...

March 23, 2018 4:18 pm

Turkey Wages a Personal War in Syria

In a rather theatrical show, the fall of the city of Afrin -- a Kurdish enclave in northwestern Syria -- after two months of battle between Turkish...

February 15, 2018 8:51 am

Turkey and Iran’s Skin-Deep Friendship

After having fought several inconclusive wars, the Ottoman Turks and the Safavid Persians decided -- in 1639 -- to embrace a new code of conduct that would last for...